De Palma

Documentary profile of filmmaker Brian De Palma lets him tell the story of his life and career in his own words, on camera and in voiceover, with no other talking heads. That gives us the unfiltered point of view of the director of Carrie and Scarface, but ultimately proves limiting. The doc, made by a pair of admiring fellow directors — Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha) and Jake Paltrow (Young Ones) — reveals De Palma to be a cultivated man with a taste for bloody material, trying to make mass-market commercial hits but rarely finding the right combination of style and substance. But at least now we know why he did what he did. Contains a fair amount of Hollywood gossip (107 min.).
ByKelly Vance